First

This evening I was telling my son about family history, about grandparents, and their parents, and their parents. I told him how those people had children who had children who had children who had us.

That was when he told me that the first person was all alone.

"Didn't the first person have parents?," I asked.

"No. Not until later."

"Why not?"

"Because the first person was a monkey. Everyone was a monkey."

I excused myself to go report this pronouncement to his mom. When I returned we said our goodnights and he said "good night, sleep tight, don't let the girls bite."

"Girls don't really bite, do they?"

"No." But he had more to say. "A girl had to be the first person."

"Why?"

"Because a girl has to born a boy or a girl. And that boy or girl could be something. Like a boy could turn into a daddy or a girl could turn into a mommy."

A little later, when starting to write this post, I asked him to confirm whether he'd said that everyone was a monkey or whether he'd said that everyone came from monkeys. Everyone was a monkey, he told me. "Because they started from monkeys. But I'm not sure how monkeys were around. I think maybe plants made animals first." His voice trailed off. "That might have been the answer. But nobody knows."